Exercise

February 05, 2013

Well, an update is loooong overdue! I've been in one of those crunch periods and along with it, fighting what seems to be the new monster under my bed, stress. This is kind of new to me, as I've always been fairly happy-go-lucky. Maybe I've just been bottling things up for years and they're messily exploding now, or maybe it's just a rough patch. Whatevs. I'm dealing.

In my chosen field, there's a certain amount of mad rushing about, followed by periods of relative calm, and sometimes interspersed with stretches of what seems like endless dead time. I have just been through Mad Rush and am currently settling into Relative Calm.

Mad Rush started with an all-too-brief trip to Puerto Rico. In addition to singing, I give workshops and do consultations for other artists, to teach them how to get into the business or troubleshoot the careers they have. The faculty of the Conservatorio de Musica Puerto Rico invited me to come and address their students, so off I went! And it was a great experience.Puerto Rico is gorgeous and the students were delightful, charming, and extremely talented.

With the talented and utterly charming young singers at the Conservatorio!

As one of my Puerto Rican colleagues said to me, "But you see why it's impossible to diet on this island?" The food is AMAZING and very tempting. And I did enjoy myself, without overdoing it. Since I was teaching almost all the time I was there, there was not a lot of opportunity to sightsee or exercise. However, I did spend the better part of Sunday morning strolling around Old San Juan and touring the Bacardi distillery. Old San Juan is spectacular:

A view of the coastline from the fortress San Felipe de Morro

Love the colorful stucco buildings and the beautiful blue bricks!

Sunday night the real Mad Rush began. Long story short, I MISSED MY FLIGHT and had to get on another --- the very last seat on the very last flight off the island! This was especially stressful because we had plans to hit the road at 6 a.m. on Monday to get to my next gig. Somehow, on four hours of sleep (and with a van pre-packed by my darling husband), we managed to do it.

So, here I am in Tulsa, where I'm rehearsing for The Most Happy Fella with Tulsa Opera. My character is Marie, who is sort of the villain of the piece, and a real Debbie Downer. She's crucial to the plot, but the role isn't very large, so I have a lot of free time. And so far, I've been using it wisely! Since I drove, I was able to bring the bike. I'm biking to rehearsal, and I've gone on two rides along the Arkansas River.

The City of Tulsa has a beautifully developed and well-maintained hike and bike trail along the river. It's possible to do a big loop, or just go for miles along one side. I've done both so far. This time of year is undoubtedly not the area's prettiest. The river below the dam is reduced to a trickle, with vast stretches of sand bars and piles of boulders that look rather like an abandoned construction site.

The rather dreary winter river

Since one side is very industrial and the other very urban, I can't say it's the nicest trail I've ever ridden. But it certainly has its moments. Fantastically beautiful wildlife statuary is scattered up and down the trail, and there are inviting benches and even chairs and tables placed strategically around. There's also a disc golf course that extends quite a long way along the trail!

Otters and a turtle!

Bobcat and pheasant

Today I went upriver --- you can only go so far --- but it enabled me to get a shot of the old Route 66 ( a minor obsession of mine) along with this spectacular sculpture.

My favorite so far!

Then I looped around to the other side of the river, which took me past the power plant, the malodorous wastewater treatment plant, many parks, and finally into the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area ... but not before I went up two VERY steep hills which ... shamefully ...I walked up, hoping no one would see. The knee does fine with cycling as long as I don't jerk it, and since the gears on my bike are a little temperamental, uphill requires a little more force than I am currently comfortable giving. But also, it's been a while since I exerted myself so much, and frankly, I just couldn't do it. Boo. But I did ride for about an hour and forty minutes, without stopping any longer than it took to snap a couple of photos. I'm not sure how far it was, but I'll guess around 15 miles RT.

The apartment complex has an exercise room, which I have yet to check out. Balmy temperatures and sunny blue skies make me prefer to be outside for my workouts, and besides, I need to get out of the apartment lest I turn into a hermit, or eat everything in sight which is always a temptation when I'm holing up somewhere.

Tulsa is a great town, and I look forward to doing some urban cycling and taking lots of photos of the incredible architecture around here. So stay tuned!

January 13, 2013

Depending on who you talk to, cleanses are either a cure-all that make you feel all svelte and alive and spiritual, or a ridiculous waste of time and money. People who do them regularly rave about how energetic and radiant they feel (well, after getting through the second-day grumps). And it's quite a fad in places like New York City, where an array of companies are lined up to offer you very expensive juices and supplements designed to cleanse you of unspecificed toxins, give your gut a rest from digesting solids, and other "benefits" which many nutritionists and doctors dismiss as bogus. The main benefit to be derived from detox cleanses or fasts is quick weight loss, and if you use it correctly, it can be a sort of jump start to healthier eating. Or you might just yo-yo, if you're not careful.

I did a sort of cleanse --- though it wasn't called that --- before starting Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer. It's a part of the nutrition program that comes with the workouts, and it's called the Two-Day Jumpstart. It's basically a semi-fast; the hardest part is giving up coffee for a couple of days. You have smoothies, green tea, low GI veggie and fruit snacks, and one solid meal a day (a salad with some lean protein, basically). It's super lowcal and you know, for two days, it's completely doable. I did feel better after having done it, but I also think the effects were mainly psychological. Sure, you're going to lose weight doing it because it's so low-cal, and what you're losing is mainly water weight. But it helps you transition.

I'm thinking about doing one again, before I set off for my next big trip. It'd be nice to feel just a little lighter, a litte more "on my way", so to speak. The inspiration this time is Groupon. An offer came for a juice cleanse, and out of curiosity I checked it out. A three-day supply of fresh juices (six 16 ounce bottles a day) costs $140 normally and was on sale for $69.

Hmm. Well, I have a Vitamix, and I know how to use it. I'm willing to bet that I could stock up on two or three days' worth of cucumbers, celery, parsley, spinach, beets, carrots, lemons, ginger, pears, apples, and cashews for a lot less than $140; and since the Vitamix emulsifies, you don't lose the fiber content and other goodies that you do with juicing. I'll probably throw in some protein powder, too; and have at least one salad-and-lean protein meal a day. I'll let you know how it goes.

In other news, it looks like Tulsa (my next long-term stop, to sing Marie in The Most Happy Fella) has great cycling trails and is, in general a bike-friendly city; so since I'm driving, I can take the bike! I don't yet know where I'm staying in relationship to where our rehearsals and performances will be , but hopefully I'll be able to get some good rides in. As much as I hate the stationary bike, I do love to ride when I'm actually going somewhere and seeing things. My goal will be to have lost enough weight that, when I get back in March, I'm in no danger of being over the BMI limit and can have my knee surgery at the surgery center, before my next gig starts in April. With any luck, by then the worker's comp stuff will be ironed out as well; at least, that's what I'm crossing my fingers for. While my knee is finally doing better (after about two and a half months staying off it, plus a painful cortisone shot), I can really tell that it's not right when I (carefully) work out, stand or walk too much, or go up or down stairs. I have plans to continue being active up until the day I die, so this will not do. Especially with hiking in Montana to look forward to.

January 12, 2013

It'd be completely rockin' if, after the last couple of rather dramatic posts, today's offering would shatter your world with awesomeness. Alas, this is not to be (unless your world is easily rocked, and if so, good for you! That must be fun). I did not lose ten pounds since this time last week (but I did lose six!) and my surgery has not magically been rescheduled and at this moment in time, there is no Hollywood ending. I wouldn't say no to one, mind you, especially if I get a Hollywood wardrobe to go with it. One that I could fit into. (Now we KNOW this is a fantasy)!

What there has been is a few days of a sort of hyper-energy, a wave of resolution and new determination which proved to be enough to get me over the initial hump of getting back to it after about two months off. Last Sunday, I went down and rejoined the little, local, no-frills community gym where I started out. It's been at least two years since I was there, and people still remember me, which is really nice. I've been hitting my old friend, the elliptical; my frenemy, the stationary bike; and my lovehate relationship, Pilates class. Haven't made it to yoga yet but it's on my list.

I've been listening to my body, especially my knee, which says 45 minutes on the elliptical is plenty (some days, 30). I've been trying not to listen to the negative voices in my head that want to make fun of me for having lost some stamina and feeling so much like I'm back at the starting line --- because it's not true. Well, I have lost some stamina and fitness, but not so very much. I am still SO much stronger and fitter than I was four years ago, and in some ways, I have more physical challenges now. Besides, I know from my experience as a professional singer --- which, believe it or not, is extremely athletic, especially if you sing something like opera --- that if you take even a couple of weeks off, it takes a while to get your breath back underneath you and your stamina up to par. Why would it be any different for working out?

I'm not sleeping so well at night but I am sleeping later in the mornings. I have a lot of weird dreams. Things working themselves out. And the question that keeps popping up, over and over again, is what do I do this time, to make it different?

See, part of the painfulness of having to start over is that, although I never believed that longterm major weight loss would be anything but a lifelong struggle, it never occurred to me that I could backslide SO much. I always thought I'd catch myself long before it became a significant problem. And to some degree, I did catch myself, in that I knew I was sliding (what? can't you see the claw marks on the side of the mountain?) and tried a lot of different things to stop and regain control.

Ultimately, none of them worked. So what is going to make this time any different?

Well, one of the things I learned when I started my most successful weight loss attempt ever, back in 2008, was that most people who managed longterm major weight loss (this is gonna get clunky; let's call it LTMW for short) had MANY false starts before they finally hooked in to whatever it took to help them keep on track for however long it took them to lose their weight. Most people find it very discouraging, but think about it --- all you have to do is start over, however many times it takes. You can ALWAYS start over. It's not like the bar exam. You get as many do-overs as you want.

Another thing is that I can sort of trace back to the moment, about two years ago, when the real slip-sliding started, and I know exactly the mindset that got me into trouble. For the first time in my adult life, I didn't think of myself as fat, and was slowly starting to believe other people when they insisted that I wasn't. It was a very weird feeling. I was away from home, on a longterm gig, and frankly ... my colleagues and I were partying a lot. There was a lot of socializing, and for some reason, I looked around at all these fit people and thought, Hey, I'm finally in the club! And if THEY can do this, why can't I?And over time, that translated into a lot of bad habits. If you're wired to overeat, and if you're wired to be overweight, you can't really relax. Sorry, but it's true. You can and should enjoy yourself, but never for more than one meal or one treat at a time, and only a couple of times a week. You have to stay on top of it.

I also now realize that, in 2008 when I started out, I had more free time and more energy than I do now. I could dedicate myself to two or more hours a day of working out. And I did. It took an enormous amount of physical and mental energy, and while I don't regret it for one second and would totally do it again if I could, I've also come to realize that I put an enormous amount of stress of myself that I am no longer equipped to deal with, not in the way I did before. Life has changed somewhat (you know, the way it tends to do) and I have to approach things differently.

Finally, I realize that with that all the time and energy I poured into figuring out how to really lose weight and stick with it and get fit, I never gave much energy or time into figuring out how to maintain it. That's the biggest missing link, and that's what I have to figure out this time.

So. Nothing very profound yet, but I have accepted the ass-kicking life has given me and thus far, used it to good effect, and have every intention of continuing to do so. Meanwhile, I ponder. There's a little further to go on this road, that's all.

January 05, 2013

After the publication of yesterday's post, many friends have written,
both publicly and privately, and some of you have posted here as well,
in a loving outpouring of sympathy, empathy, and support. There has been
much friendly encouragement and advice. Many people are expressing
anger and frustration with the wretched state of our healthcare and
insurance systems, and many have expressed disdain for the use of BMI to
determine whether someone is healthy enough for surgery under a certain
set of circumstances.

( I confess I find the latter puzzling as well, and perhaps one of my
readers who is better educated medically than I can explain it. I
understand the concern about respiratory issues, especially sleep apnea,
while under anesthesia, although I do not now nor have I ever suffered
from it; but I don't quite get the concern about the health and safety
of the medical personnel who would be working on me. There are certainly
people who weigh the same as I do, who due to their height fall within
the allowable BMI range. How is it easier or safer to lift or roll one
of them than it is me? I also want to make it clear that I was treated
with professional courtesy, real compassion and caring by the lovely
people at Texas Orthopedics. They went out of their way to help me ---
one even checked with the hospital's own surgery center to see whether
they might have a higher BMI limit, and whether my doctor was or could
be credentialed there. )

Many people wrote to say they are undergoing the same battle --- most
of them people I personally never think of as being in any way
overweight, and so a humbling reminder that challenges with food and
fitness are not restricted to those of us with unsuitable BMIs (yeah,
I'm going to keep ragging on that for a while, bear with me). Many of
those folks, like me, have fought it all their lives. We are not alone.

The healing and inspiration to be found in these sharings is
tremendous, and each and every one is tremendously appreciated. But one,
from a colleague who I had the privilege of working with not too long
ago, made me cry. This colleague wrote:

"Anybody that knows you also knows that you will accomplish anything
you put your mind to. But if I can just say, you ran your ass off during
our show just as hard as everyone else in the cast, and you weren't any
more winded or any weaker or any more anything than anyone else in the
cast... and that kind of activity is not possible for someone who is too
fat to have a knee surgery. You are a healthy person, regardless of how
much weight you feel you need to lose. We have seen those people who
are too fat for a surgery, and you are not one of them. Anybody who went
through two rounds of P90X is not one of those people."

OK, I'm going to cry again just re-reading it.

I am a healthy person, still.

I didn't realize, until I read that, that part of what is making this
so hard is that deep down, I felt I might have ruined what I worked so
hard to gain, which was better fitness and health. It's embarrassing
enough to have regained so much weight, but I've also deeply feared that
my diabetes might come back. Most of all, I've felt like the Wizard of
Oz, a big humbug. Here I am with this weight loss blog I've had for four
years now, writing fairly openly about my experiences (except for the
last few months, and yes, I've been feeling really guilty about that and
trying to put a good face on it), and so determined to keep going, to
get a grip, not to slide all the way into the abyss. And to be fair, I
haven't ... but it's very scary.

Several people have pointed out that weight loss programs have a
dismal success rate. It's true; I actually knew that from the outset and
tried to factor it in; but I did hope to find a way to get around it. I
really wanted to be one of the minority who manage NOT to gain it all
back and thought I stood a pretty good chance of doing so. The deck is
really stacked against us there, my friends; research bears it out. But
this is in no way a reason not to try. Yo-yoing isn't good for you, but
neither is the extra burden, and the bottom line is that everyone has to
figure out what is best for them. You'll forgive the pun, but weight
loss/management is not a one-size-fits-all proposition.

But nevertheless ... I am a healthy person, still. Up until my injury, which happened on opening night of Falstaff,
October 27, I was running, walking, or stepping on the elliptical
machine for hours almost every day, with a few P90X sessions thrown in
for good measure. Before that, I completed a four-week round of 10
Minute Trainer, a Tony Horton (aka P90X guy) workout --- I did three
sessions back to back every day. I spent June cycling all over
Princeton, including to and from rehearsals; in April and May I did
Zumba, kickboxing, barre toning classes, and TRX suspension band
resistance training every day at Ironflower Fitness (usually two
classes a day); and February and March I was biking all over Sarasota
and doing Power 90 (a P90X precursor) daily in my living room. It's not like I've been sitting on my ass eating bon-bons.
And yet the whole time --- the whole, entire time --- I have battled an
underlying guilt and shame that somehow I was not doing enough.

So maybe that's the real problem. I mean, I've tried to go the "focus
on the fitness" route, tried not to worry about my weight, but it
doesn't really work for me because no matter how much I'd like it to be
otherwise, I don't like being fat. And when I was at my lowest weight, I
STILL had an unsuitable BMI and lots of jiggly parts, and frankly, at
my age, that's never going to change without a whole lot of plastic
surgery. (The jigglies, that is). But I felt better then, I liked my
clothes, I felt younger, and yes, strangers treated me differently. I want to get back there, and to do that, I have to figure out how to let go of the guilt and shame.

My mom said to me, earlier today, "I was really worried about how
upset you were about the surgery, but I knew you'd figure something out.
You always do."

Well, I have figured out the immediate plan; having rejoined my basic
community gym today, I am going to get myself up there every day
between now and January 24, when I head out on my next trip, and do
Pilates, yoga, or the elliptical. I'm not doing anything fancy with
food, just yet, other than doing actual meal planning and trying to make
good choices. This morning at the farmer's market, I picked up fresh
grouper and scallops, so this week's menu includes garam masala scallops
with shredded brussels sprouts and lemon dill grouper with herbed
zucchini. French onion soup, too, and leftover vegetarian noodle-less
lasagna which I made so nobody would have to cook during my non-existent
recovery.

Today, I feel better armed to face the challenge, especially with the
healing truths that so many friends have taken the time to remind me of:
that being fat does not necessarily negate being healthy. (There's
proof that active fat people are actually healthier than skinny couch
potatoes).
That what so many of us are trying to do is really, really hard, and
society as a whole does not support it in a meaningful or useful way.
That weight regain happens. That the struggle to stay fit and manage
food and weight is not limited to fat people. That those who struggle
need to hear about the setbacks as well as the successes.

And I do feel better, thanks to the many people like my friend quoted
above, who wrote words of support and told me I inspired them, who
shared my frustration and anger at the healthcare system and at the
stupidity of using BMI as a measure of health, who simply wished me
well. Thank you. It may be a cliche, but it really does mean a lot to
me. I also feel better for having some sort of plan --- not
all-inclusive, but enough to get started, and getting started is the
most important part, because it's usually the hardest. Keeping going is
the second most important. And giving yourself permission to start over,
as many times as it takes?

I am living with pain, both physical and psychological. If that sounds dramatic, you'll have to forgive me --- I am a bona fide diva, you know, even if under normal circumstances a rather low key one (or so I flatter myself). It's a torn meniscus, and plenty of people just live with such an injury, never bothering to have it fixed. It's not cancer, it's not neuralgia, it's not even rhumatoid arthritis. It's not any one of a million horrific injuries, diseases, or painful conditions that millions of people have to endure every day. But the knee hurts. Not so much that I can't do my job. Not so much that I need to regularly take medication for it, but daily and enough. It's weak enough to concern me that I could reinjure it if I'm not careful. Weak enough that, as a precaution, I've gone nearly two months without doing any significant exercise, the longest period of inertia since 2008, and the most costly.

The psychological pain is, as you might imagine, harder to deal with.

Here's the gist: my knee surgery did not happen as scheduled on Friday, and it's unlikely to be scheduled for some time. To say that it is disappointing is an understatement, but there's more to it than that.

It's humiliating.

This is a hard post to write. Parts of it have been thoroughly mulled over for months, as I struggled with how much to say and how and what and when. Things came to a head a few days ago when a mystery call came from the hospital. It was a mystery because my surgery was scheduled for the surgery center at my orthopedist's office --- the same place I had wrist surgery after breaking it in 2008. Suddenly, it was moved to the hospital, and after a chain of phone calls, I finally found out why. That was the first hit. The second came on Thursday morning, hours before my pre-op meeting was scheduled. The hospital called again, with an estimate this time.

They wanted $23,000 for a 15-minute, minimally invasive outpatient procedure, and that price tag does not include the cost of the surgeon or anethesiologist. That price, my dears, is well over six times what it would have cost me were it to happen in the surgery center.

I did some very quick, dirty research and figured out that I could actually fly to New Delhi, stay for two weeks in a moderately priced hotel, and have the surgery for a little over a quarter of what it would cost me to have it at the hospital ten miles from my house.

Now, I am insured, but my insurance would have covered less than half of those costs. I have also applied for worker's comp, since this injury happened on stage during the opening night of a performance. But that claim is still being processed, andI have no idea how much of this will be covered or when, and I was really, really hoping to get this matter taken care of before my next gig. It is terribly upsetting to have to wait, especially since I have to wait for a stupid reason.

You see, I could have had my surgery on Friday as scheduled in the surgery center, and paid less than one sixth of what the hospital would like to charge, and even if I'd had to pay for every cent of it out of my own pocket I could have managed that. But I am not eligible for surgery at the surgery center, as I was in 2008, because my BMI is now too damned high. They have a limit, and I am over it.

There it is. After all my struggles, my work, my research and education, my hours of sweat, and yes, my pontificating, I have gained back enough weight that I am too fat to have surgery at the surgery center. And that, my friends, is humiliating beyond words.

I realize that it probably does not come as a surprise to anyone who's been following this blog, either; but I've been reluctant to come right out and say it in plain terms, for reasons you can certainly imagine and some you probably can't. But I've always tried to be open here. So it's time to come clean.

I do not, by the way, regret having made the big effort to lose weight and to become healthier. I don't regret a single minute of exercise or a single cookie skipped. I would do it all again and in fact, I plan to. (The" how" part of the plan still needs work; after all, I've been fighting this for some time now without the amount of success I want).

I do not count my past accomplishments as now somehow being invalidated, either. I did what I did, and I'm proud of it. I hope I can do it again.

I don't believe my methods were flawed. They worked. I lost 130 pounds, reversed my Type II diabetes, got off all meds, and got into the best shape of my life. I started running. I did two rounds of P90X. And I'm still at a lower weight than when I started.

So why have I, despite fighting hard, despite being well-educated about nutrition and weight management and general fitness, regained so much weight? There isn't a pat, easy answer. Some people are going to raise the usual refrain, "You have no willpower! No discipline!" and I shall pre-emptively call bullshit on that. I have plenty of both, and I've proved it. Weight loss and weight management and food relationships are complicated.

I thought, at one time, I had mine under control. Maybe I did, at one time. I know that I got so far off base a little, tiny, bit at a time and I think I can trace the start of it back to a specific time, place, and set of behaviors. That's a start.

What happens next? Well, now that I've got this off my chest, the plan is to go back to where I started. Tomorrow I'm rejoining the little neighborhood gym where I spent an hour a day on the elliptical, for about two years straight. They have a great Pilates class, and they have yoga, both of which will help a lot with strength and flexibility and will be good for my knee. They have my elliptical machine and they have stationary bikes, which I dislike intensely but are probably better for my knee than the elliptical.

Two days ago, when I still thought I'd be recovering over the weekend, I planned healthy meals. I made split pea soup and vegetarian noodle-less lasagna so nobody would have to cook and we wouldn't be tempted to go out or order in. I made sure we had plenty of salad fixins' in the house. I'll be planning ahead more, something I'd let slide in recent months.

While I wait for my claim to be processed, I plan on losing some weight. While I was writing this, I popped over to a BMI calculator and checked to see how much I'd have to lose to qualify for surgery at the center.

Ten pounds. Ten lousy pounds. When you're as heavy as I am, that's nothing.I'm not sure whether to be more embarrassed by that, or pissed off that the nurse didn't tell me that's all I'd have to lose. It would have saved me a lot of grief. Hell, armed with this information, I may just go on a smoothie and salad "fast" for a week and then try again. Crash dieting is not, of course, a solution to longterm weight loss, but in this one case, it just might be worthwhile.

But slow and steady is, of course, best, and ultimately that is what I'll return to. I'll give all my old tools another try, a really good try. And I'll look for new solutions, too.

It's a journey, not a destination, and as with all journeys, sometimes you get off track. Sometimes way off track. Sometimes you have to make a U-turn.

November 12, 2012

What I did with my October: Falstaff, Opera Idaho. L-R: Elizabeth Ashantiva as Nannetta, Tiffany Calas as Meg, Leslie Mauldin as Alice, me as Quickly.

Can I just have a do-over for the first two weeks of November? (Well, except for Election Day; I don't think any of us wants to relive
that, whether you're estatic or desperate over the outcome). Despite having embarked on this month full of enthusiasm and armed with a plan, I quickly got bitch-slapped down to the ground with a weird combination of illness, injury, and exhaustion which leached my strength and endurance on every
level. Feeling poorly is never convenient, but my schedule since getting off the plane from Boise hasn't let up for a minute: immediate rehearsals and performances for Spotlight on Opera's Fright Night at the Opera, our supercool Halloween show; a trip to hurricane-ravaged New York just in time to slog to my auditions and lessons through a snowstorm; rehearsal and a performance of a fundraiser the day after I got back. There's no avoiding a lot of walking in New York, so the knee is mucho unhappy again, when it seemed to have been getting better. I mustered just enough energy to drag myself through everything, and still give what I thought were pretty good auditions, but each of these activities left me completely drained, and
I just have not been myself --- forgetting things, getting times wrong, unable
to put two words together in a coherent sentence.

8:15 p.m., Nola Studios, NY. Having slogged through the nor'easter to get to my audition, I pause here at the elevator to immortalize the moment, so you may all share in the glory and glamour that is the life of an opera singer. You 'll just have to take my word that under the duck boots and puffy coat, I was EXTREMELY glam.

So, there's my sob story, and to sum up, except for one or two good sessions before I headed out to NY and all the walking I did there, there has been NO exercise and my eating has, quite frankly, been lousy.

One of my friends has recently been ultra-stressed, studying for comps and trying to maintain a workout routine, and at some point, she just gave herself permission to let it for for a short time while she concentrated on her studies. As disapppointed as I am with my lousy start to November, I'm making an executive decision not to beat myself up and not to make myself crazy trying to "catch up". In fact, although I am feeling a lot better, the truth is I am still tired and my knee is still pretty jacked up, and the really healthy thing to do right now is probably to give myself a break on the working out for a few more days at least. But I CAN concentrate on healthy eating.

Here's the good thing: you can start over again, as
many times as you need to, whenever you need to. It all counts. And there's still time to make sure the holidays are healthy.

So, do-over. And if you need one, you can have it too. You can start right this instant, even if you just had a gigantic piece of chocolate cake and a triple pumpkin spice latte with extra whipped cream for breakfast. Who's with me?

October 31, 2012

Tomorrow, a new challenge begins --- the Healthy Holiday Challenge, sponsored by a FaceBook group I'm part of, Larry Brownlee's Fit Club. This is a group of singers and friends who encourage and challenge each other, and exchange information. It's a great idea to help us all get through the holidays enjoying ourselves without guilt!

The challenge is this: set a daily calorie intake for the entire 61 days from November 1 - January 31. During this time, you get five "free days" during which you can exceed your daily limit, essentially taking a "day off". You also select five days to come in lower than your daily limit. And you plan to increase your activity level during entire 61 day period.

Opening night of Falstaff in Boise, Idaho. I am in the storage/locker room in the basement of the historic Egyptian Theater. Built in 1927 as a cinema, it has no dressing rooms to speak of!

That last part is going to be a bit of a challenge for me, thanks to an adventure I had on opening night of Falstaff. Falstaff is a very physically active comedy, with a great deal of running around (especially for my character, Dame Quickly, who is a sort of go-between). In my very first scene, going up a flight of stairs, I felt a wrench that went from below my knee all the way up to my hip. The next step was excruciating. It's a very good thing I wasn't singing when it happened, because it would have come out as a yelp! As it was, I was able to take a deep breath and make my next vocal entrance as if nothing had happened, and limped through the rest of the scene (literally), but the moment I got offstage I had to call for a chair, ice, Advil, and a bandage. Within minutes my knee was so swollen I could no longer bend it. And naturally, this happened on a Friday night.

Close-up of the makeup and the back of the costume. My jaunty little hat got rave reviews.

I got through the rest of the performance, limping and modifying my staging somewhat, but I did not sleep well that night. It hurt to lift or move the leg laterally, and it was badly swollen. On Saturday, I went to Urgent Care, which proved fairly useless. The doctor said I either had a bad sprain or a torn ligament, and offered X-rays "to rule out anything else", an Ace bandage which was not wrapped sufficiently to give any support whatsoever, and a type of pain medication I'd never heard of and wasn't willing to try, given that I had another performance on Sunday. Other than that, she had no advice other than to continue what I was doing --- RICE, aka Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation --- and to get an MRI.

Luckily, one of my colleagues and her husband are locals who own a chain of physical therapy centers called Rehab Authority. She arranged for one of their best therapists, Heather Henderson, to meet with me on Saturday evening. And Heather was a miracle worker. She worked on me for two hours and got the inflammation down, the knee to bend, and me to be able to walk, carefully, without pain. On Sunday, with care and a good brace, I was able to do the show much more comfortably.

On Monday it was a long and frustrating day of travel, beginning with our flight being canceled due to fog. We were rebooked on a later flight which was delayed three or four times, and when we finally got out, the "premium" seats I paid for ended up being bulkhead window seats without enough leg room to full extend my leg. This was a problem. Luckily, I was seated next to an extremely kind (and tall) young man who offered to switch places with me. I'd already experienced another very painful wrench earlier in the day, when I moved too quickly to catch something that was falling, a good reminder that even with improved mobility and less pain I need to be careful.

So, I have set my calorie intake goal and dedicated myself to this challenge, but I am not sure how much cardio I'm going to be able to do! Elliptical would work but I'm not currently a member of a gym. I may be stuck with the stationary bike, which I don't really care for. However, I am determined to heal my leg and get back into fighting form so I CAN really step it up. In the meantime, the Healthy Holiday Challenge is the perfect way to really enjoy the holidays and rev up for a happy, healthy new year.

October 25, 2012

The other night,some colleagues and I were sitting around enjoying a post-rehearsal glass of wine. This is a pretty fit bunch, over all. Several of the guys do P90X, and I'm constantly running into the tenor at the gym.

The soprano is a tall, willowy sort with a very athletic figure (despite three kids!); the type of body many women strive for and envy. She has a figure that can still handle the type of jeans teenage girls wear. I forget how we got on the subject, but we were talking about eating healthy and our various struggles with weight. I once again found myself surprised that slender, athletic people struggle with food and weight, too! Intellectually I know this, of course, but it always manages to surprise me anyway.

I continue to struggle with my feelings about my own body, weight, and what is truly healthy for me at this particular point in my life. Where is the balance between physical health and emotional health? If I work out regularly and watch what I eat, is that good enough even if I don't like the number on the scale or the tag on my clothes? Is relaxing my regimen from time to time cheating, or is it doing what I have to do to keep from stressing and obsessing?

My costume for Dame Quickly in Falstaff at Opera Idaho. This photo was taken in the basement storage/locker room of the Egyptian Theater where we're performing. A former silent movie house, it has no dressing rooms to speak of!

These types of thoughts run like a ticker tape in the back of my mind whenever health and fitness talk comes up, and this time was no exception. And then something happened that, for the moment at least, completely stopped it.

My colleague leaned across the table and said, "You know, you have the cutest figure!"

I was, needless to say, very pleasantly startled and flattered; no one has ever accused me of such a thing before. I thanked her and told her a bit about my weight loss and ongoing struggles. She very kindly said, "You look great now. When you were singing that Dalila aria the other night at the aria auction, you were so sensual! And you just looked great."

Well, this was just balm to my soul. Why is it that we are so susceptible to the compliments and criticisms of others? Nevertheless, these kind words did give me encouragement. I feel encouraged to keep up with my workouts (been going to the gym, hiking, or jogging on the greenbelt trail nearly every day). It gives me encouragement to continue to eat healthy most of the time, and not to worry too much if I slack off or take a WHOLE DAY OFF like I did earlier this week. It gives me encouragement to allow myself to be more comfortable in my own skin.

.. and back, with a close-up of the makeup. They used my own hair instead of wigging, too. om b

That's a powerful gift, from a few little words.

Let me leave you with this. Today, and every day, let's just be gorgeous and not worry about it. Deal?

October 15, 2012

For the past week, I've been in Boise, ID where I am rehearsing for Falstaff with Opera Idaho. It's my second time singing with this company; the first was in spring 2010, when I came out to do Daughter of the Regiment and discovered what a lovely part of the country this is. Boise is a great place to spend time, and now in the fall, the weather is actually nicer than it was in the early spring when I was here last! We've had balmy, sunny days, decorated by the emerging fall color. Since we don't usually begin rehearsals until afternoon, that leaves the morning free for my workouts, and I've been taking advantage of the gorgeous Boise River Greenbelt.

It's a spectacularly beautiful greenbelt, winding along the banks of the river, through isolated wooded areas and parks, across bridges big and small, behind businesses and houses.

Fortunately for me, the trail, though well-used, it also fairly isolated. And this is fortunate because, in an effort to get the most cardio/calorie burning potential from my walks, I have taken to performing an activity I shall henceforth refer to as "groove jogging". This involves high BPM tunes on the IPod, moving as many body parts as possible in time to the music, and a complete lack of shame. It may or may not incorporate kickboxing, Zumba, white girl dancing (think Elaine from Seinfeld), and actual jogging. Thanks to ongoing issues with my knee and ... well, seems like most of my lower body ... I can't really run, although with such a beautiful trail, I'm itching to. But I can jog gently, and pump my arms to add cardio benefit. So that's what I'm doing.

We are fortunate to have been given gym passes to the local Anytime Fitness, so I've also made a couple of trips there to spend time on the elliptical and treadmill. With afternoon rehearsals, there's really no excuse not to work out! And it feels very good to be active again, after having taken several days off prior to the trip. I also spent one afternoon leaping about in the neighborhood park --- push-ups, jumping jacks, kickboxing, any and every cardio move I could think of --- just to get moving. But frankly, when the weather is this beautiful, nothing beats the greenbelt.

If all this natural beauty weren't enough, there's a terrific farmer's market downtown on Saturdays. The most beautiful produce and wonderful crafts.

Meanwhile, when I'm not out enjoying the local beauty and goodies, I'm in rehearsal or attending opera-related events. Our director, David Cox, emailed the cast before we showed up here with the very accurate warning that this is a VERY active show. "Keep up with your cardio!" he admonished us, and quite right. We are all running hither and yon, and singing at the top of our lungs while doing it --- this is, after all, a madcap comedy. Opera, done correctly, IS aerobic exercise, and even more so when it's a show with a lot of movement!

Boise is a great town for good food, and it's near and dear to the hearts of the opera folk here, too. The general director of the compaby, Mark Junkert, is known for his cooking, as is his wife Kathy. After our very first musical read-through, they invited us over for a delicious meal of African-inspired dishes, and I am happy to say they were all very healthy. There was a dahl ( a bean dish, very similar to the better known Indian version ), a delicious seafood stew flavored with coconut milk and cardamom; and roast pork with a raspberry sauce. Amazing! I begged a copy of the seafood stew recipe and plan to make it as soon as I get home.

On Friday night, we were invited to a fundraiser for the opera called the Aria Auction. This is a lovely dinner (catered by Open Table) with a silent auction of goods, followed by a raucous auctioning off of arias provided by the cast of the current opera. Some kind people actually paid $800 to hear me sing "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix" --- well, no pressure, right? We raised a nice sum of money for the opera company and enjoyed the dinner the caterers saved for us afterwards --- a delicious salad with some kind of light vinaigrette and cranberries; very tender strips of beef over egg noodles, a wonderful eggplant lasagna, and a light, un-iced almond cake which was just to die for.

On Saturday, a couple of the singers who live locally invited us to their home for an informal get together, and served salsa, chicken, and veggies with produce from their backyard garden. And tonight, we went to some board members' homes for a wonderful meal of salmon flavored with fennel and other herbs, topped with pickled red onions, over mashed potatoes. It was as fine as you'd get in any restaurant. So you see, people in these parts know (and love!) their food.

See why I have to hit that trail every day? Tomorrow, bright and early, the gym!

September 26, 2012

Health at Every Size advocates must be rejoicing over the recent New York Times article (brought to my attention by reader and former voice student Natalie) reporting on a spate of recent studies which seem to conclude that being fat and fit really is healthier than being lean and unfit.

Fat has so long been hailed as the nemesis of all things healthy, the gateway to diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and a host of other ailments. So it's surprising and, in a way relieving, to read studies that are essentially saying, "All things being equal, fitness counts for more than fatness".

These studies reveal what doctors are calling the "obesity paradox": overweight patients who become ill with a host of ailments often associated with obesity actually have a better chance of surviving than thin patients with the same issues. Patients with heart disease, high cholesterol, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart failure, and even diabetes all have a better chance of surviving the ravages of their illnesses if they are overweight.

The article quotes Glenn Gaesser, director of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University, as saying, "More often than not, cardiovascular fitness is a far more important
predictor of mortality risk than just knowing what you weigh. " Older, longterm studies such as the famous Framington Heart Study fail to take into account the fitness of patients and the amount of physical activity they engage in. Newer studies are showing that regular aerobic exercise decreases fat in the liver, which in turn reduces the strain on the metabolism.

So, while it's good news --- simply being fat doesn't mean you can't have a good level of fitness --- it shouldn't be used as an excuse to throw in the diet towel. Overweight does put extra strain on your body, especially your joints. You move more easily at a lighter weight. You may be less likely to develop some of the ailments associated with obesity.

It gives me hope, though, as I struggle through this next chapter in my fitness life, as I try to come to peace with my body and my feelings about my looks, which are as strongly influenced by the march of time (in hobnail boots across my face, thank you very much) as they are by the number on the scale or on my jeans. I work out almost every day. I am proud to have developed an exercise habit and to be in better shape than I was many birthdays ago.

When I get discouraged, I remember the words of my kickboxing instructor in Miami --- "You're STRONG." No, I wasn't as fast as the other women in the class. They left me in the dust when we jogged. I couldn't do as many burpees, and mine weren't elegant. But I could do them. I can do full-on push-ups. I can do jumping jacks. I can hold a plank.

Recently, I got an email from the director of the opera I'll be singing next --- Falstaff, with Opera Idaho. It's a madcap comedy featuring a quartet of women who get the better of all the bumbling men in their lives, and there's a lot of action. The director warned us that this will be a VERY active show, lots of running around --- and that's on top of singing at the top of your lungs. Opera is aerobic even if you aren't chasing madly about the stage. "Do your cardio before you get here, "he admonished us.

So I had a little laugh at that. Cardio? Bring it on. Racing all over the stage singing over 10 other soloists and an orchestra, while wearing a costume that weighs an extra 10-20 pounds, plus corset and heels? BRING IT.

I want to be slender and fit, but until I can be that, fat and fit it is.